There will be spoilers, so beware.
The Konosuba movie, as it is what I will be referring to, is based on the 5th volume of the original light novel, and although not in a direct way, is the sequel to the second season of the anime.
The character focus is Megumin, as in the movie we go to her village and learn more about the Crimson Demon clan
From a story point, it does a decent job at what it's trying to do. It presents a lot about the clan. The people of the clan are very expressive and tell a lot about their clan. And I think from how the movie presents it, it is an experience that would be remembered
Now, why did I give this movie a 5/10? It's simple, pacing. It might sound hard to believe, but the pacing is what made me feel conflicted about this movie.
I'm sorry for what I'm about to do. But I can't help it
I've read the light novel, all 17 volumes. And in my "humble" opinion, I prefer the light novel way more and this is somehow relevant to the review
For starters, the movie and light novel have a massive difference in terms of pacing obviously. The books were slower, things progressed at a slow, yet great pace. The movie is more fast passed, a lot faster. An example of this can be seen immediately when Kazuma and co asked Wiz for transporting them to the village immediately, and we move on to the next scene. In the books, they asked Wiz to transport them to Alcanretia, and then walked the rest of their way to the village. This journey from Alcanretia to the village is an entire chapter, where they encounter a monster and had to deal it with the usual Konosuba charm. It's more descriptive, the build-up to the joke is slower yet made sense, it shows us the humanity of Kazuma, and it's a filler. The reason why they removed this in the movie is obvious, pacing. It's a movie, you have to make things quick. Which is completely understandable.
And the removed content from the books was very large, larger than I had expected. Multiple jokes were cut. Scenes are less descriptive. Build-ups are way faster. dialogues feel faster. 2 chapters were cut. and they add a new section in the boss fight. All of these things were understandably removed or added. The new addition to the final fight was for a climactic ending. And although the changes were understandable, I can't help but think that the removed parts were what made the light novel so good in the first place.
Before you hate me, I know the movie doesn't have to follow the light novel. The movie can be it's own thing. It creates it's own charm. But to me, they failed to deliver
The books focused way more on Megumin, we learn her motives, we learn a lot of aspects about her that made Megumin Megumin. In the movie, they kinda did tell us about Megumin, but not that much compared to the books. They did, however, add a new scene, where Megumin and YunYun went to their old school. This is a nice addition, as we never learn about Megumin's school in the main series of the books.
Now, at the very end when Megumin asked Kazuma to make her learn other skills than Explosion, and leave Explosion for good, only to have Kazuma buffed it up. It was supposed to be a big moment for her, that she is in fact not that useless. Idk about you but... Isn't that scene a bit out of the blue? It may just be me, but nothing from previous encounters lead me to believe she would quit explosion for good. Again, it's because there's no time for further dialogue.
My point is that the movie is trying to be something different from the books. But it just doesn't work for me. The slower, more relaxed pacing of the books makes more sense to me. The books were way more impactful and add a lot more meaning because of how slow, yet grand the information we get is. And I know I just compare the adaptation to the original and it's a sin yes I'm sorry please forgive me ;-;
Edit: I can't spell
Side rant: The final battle sucks. The second phase especially. Like why is it even there? The original was handled way better and there was no transforming into a slime bullshit. It's funny all the way till her death and has way more of the Konosuba boss battle charm.
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